The following letter was received by Gary Dull, an American missionary who has attended several HTHSOE seminars. We love the work he and his wife Deborah are doing for the kingdom. We hope you enjoy reading how successful they have been using Back to the Bible.
I want to tell you about David, Jessi, and Carsyn Capps. In the early 2000s, Deborah and I were present when David was baptized (at Corinth Church of Christ), but for several reasons he fell away from the church. He later got married and David and Jessi had a beautiful daughter Carsyn. One day I saw David at Lowes, and we talked, and I told him he needed to think about what he was doing by not exposing Carsyn to the church and not bringing Jessi to Christ. He told me he would think about what I had said. Sometime later, I saw him using a pole chainsaw at his dad’s house and asked him if I could hire him to use it at my house. He came and we had another chance to talk. That was in October.
The church at North Main in Mocksville, NC, gave out treat bags with a few pieces of candy and info on the church for Halloween. We are on Main Street, which was literally closed for blocks. Thousands came through. The Capps family showed up at our booth in front of our church building. David asked if this was where we went to church. I said yes and asked him to visit sometime soon. David and his family visited the next Sunday, and I took the opportunity to ask them to have a Bible study. They both said yes, and I went for the first study using Back to the Bible.
I arrived at the appointed time and found little Carsyn watching TV at full volume. I asked if there was any way she could turn it down, just for a few minutes while we had our study. They did and the lesson began around the kitchen table. At the end of book 1, I asked if we could set another date for the second book, and David said yes, so we made a date.
The next week when I got there the setting was a little different. They were ready for the lesson. We went through that lesson and not much was said by either of them. Then I asked did they want to do the next lesson. They both said yes. I came out of their house with a smile on my face. The next week we were halfway through the lesson and Jessi looked up from her Bible and said, “I need to be baptized.” I said, “That’s good but let’s finish this lesson and talk about the Lord’s church.” When we finished, Jessi replied, “I need to be baptized.” I said, “OK. Do you want to do it tonight?” She hesitated. This was about 9 p.m. on a weeknight. Both go to work early and Carsyn was in kindergarten. I told her we can make this happen and that today is the day of salvation.
I made some calls, and everything was arranged. David called his father who was overjoyed with happiness. He said he would meet us, and we met at the building. I took Jessi’s confession in front of several tearful witnesses. David’s father and mother were crying, and I asked Steve (David’s father) if he would like to baptize his daughter-in law? Steve looked at Jessi and she hugged him, and they agreed to this. This was all done in the presence of Jessi’s mother who is a member of a denomination. We continue to pray for a study there.
David has returned to the church and brought his family! They are active members at North Main. Along with the Capps, I have used Back to the Bible to convert Charlie and Justin Eure. Charlie is Deborah’s brother and Justin is his son. Both were very worldly. We never thought either would ever be converted. There are many stories I could tell you. There have been 37 souls that were saved by using Back to the Bible in Cuba. We use the Spanish version there.
I have already presented this material to my elders and asked them to view the videos from Warner’s Chapel. On December 7, I will present, “Evangelism Simplified” at our Elder/Deacon meeting. Just Christians Missions works with many small congregations, and we have encouraged them to see the videos from Warner’s Chapel also. Currently I am in the process of talking to them about the Evangelism Simplified material. Gary Dull, www.justchristiansmissions.com
We thank God for World Video Bible School, the Gospel Broadcast Network, and Just Christian Missions. These good works help produce and promote the gospel. We are not a “one man” team, but a potent army of believers, working together to defeat the devil through the blood of Christ. May the spirit of cooperation continue to gain strength and souls be saved.
We went out to eat with a couple—the man is a member; his wife is not. We have been looking for a way to reach out to her. His mother died, and I am preaching the funeral, so I asked her to come to the meeting where I learn about the mother’s life for the funeral sermon. She came, the dinner went great, they both opened to us about personal problems in their lives (and this was our first time meeting her). It went just like you said in the seminar—when we showed our care, they opened up! Now, it will be easy to have them in our home for dinner, and I believe it will be easy to set up Bible study with this lady. We are so thankful for the good things we learned in the seminar.
East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Charles Cochran (preacher) reports, “We had a couple visit with us yesterday. They had been invited by a fellow worker. We received an encouraging card from a compassion card recipient. We had six follow up visit opportunities from the door knocking outreach. We sent out 145 compassion cards in November.”
North Jefferson church of Christ, Mt. Pleasant, Texas: Kris Groda (preacher) reports, “We had six visitors on Sunday from the community. We are trying to prospect these contacts into Bible studies. There are five Bible studies going on right now. I am using Believe the Bible on a few of them, and it is going great.”
Oak Hill church of Christ, Covington, Georgia: Tate Sutton (preacher) reports, “We started our card writing group. Members were encouraged to reach out to nonmembers who have been in the hospital. We will be in further contact with them to see how we can help and try to set up Bible studies. We also participated in the Covington Christmas parade and passed out info about the church and all sorts of evangelism material.”
Warner Robins church of Christ, Georgia: Dave Domingue (elder) reports, “We are now in our sixth week of sending out compassion and visitor cards. Our congregation is divided into four groups, and we rotate sending out cards each week so each person will get cards for four weeks. We are using a combination of Google Sheets and email notification to the specific group that week to remind members to send their cards. Over the past couple of weeks, we have also delivered 15 new mover baskets. Most of these have been legitimate moves to the area, and we are excited that many are young couples. We are overwhelmed with so many people (in the 100s) moving to our community within a six-mile radius that we are going to have to further narrow down our scope for in person deliveries.”
Daniel Stearsman (preacher) reports, “Things are going well in Warner Robins. We finished Back to the Bible book 2 in worship yesterday morning. Bible studies are underway, a healthy prospect list is advancing, and visitation teams are working. Plans are underway by the ladies for implementing visitor bags and new mover bags in the works. The elders will meet with prospective greeters this weekend. We thank the Lord for our elders and those who are eager to jump in and get involved. Glory to Christ!”
University church of Christ, Montgomery, Alabama: Faires Austin (elder) reports, “It has been another exciting week.
1. Tucker and Haley Presley (Tucker is our youth minister), conducted their first study last week with their exterminator agent. They went through Back to the Bible, booklet one. The gentleman was anxious to start the study and commented that he is looking forward to the next two studies in the booklets. We are all praying for this study.
2. Our pulpit minister, Randy Medlin, delivered a fine sermon this morning on Back to the Bible, booklet three, part one.
3. Our card ministry continues, but we are making a few changes and will be adding more of our members to this effort.
4. On Sunday, December 12, we will be making a presentation to the congregation on the progress of our Evangelism Ministry.”
Coldwater church of Christ, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “We are finishing a couple of studies this week. One of our deacons will hopefully finish book 3 this week. We developed more prospects from our contacts this week. One is a sister-in-law to one of our deacons. She is in the hospital with a serious infection. We started sending cards to her this week. We pray this will lead to a study with her and her husband. I have a visit set up with one of our first contacts that turned into a prospect. He had a blood clot and is home and back to work. I pray our visits with him will lead to a study.”
Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “The elders and I enjoyed hearing how we can better our evangelism efforts at Riverbend. On Tuesday, Aden Basler was baptized into Christ. He has been visiting with the Miller family for quite some time. They studied with him. His mother attended services on Wednesday for the first time. She is added to the compassion card list, and we hope that we can eventually get in a study with her.”
Willow Avenue church of Christ, Cookeville, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley and Don Blackwell report, “Been doing marriage counseling for months. Did the final session tonight, and I discussed that they must be on the same page spiritually. Concluded with him wanting to be baptized. We have had three re-baptisms and one additional baptism this past week. We have still got several studies going on, but some are taking a little longer than we had hoped. We have one guy we have been studying with who is at that point right now.”
Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips reports, “The congregation will be door knocking again this week. Our support continues to increase from the congregation! New members are joining into the work. We have multiple studies ongoing. The visitor bags are now together. This upcoming Sunday I will conclude our study of evangelism that we have been doing over the past year on Sunday mornings. It is a lot of little things that together represent the continuing shift in attitude. We are thankful to God for His rich blessings in this work!”
Deerfoot church of Christ, Birmingham, Alabama: Richard Harp (preacher) reports, “Please rejoice with us as we celebrate a new beginning. Jody Parker put his Lord on in baptism on Sunday as an answer to God for a good conscience. He studied with his friend and co-worker Jason Newland, one of our members. Jason’s father Kerry baptized him. This has been such a great encouragement to all, as Jason used the Back to the Bible booklets and Does it Matter? study materials. This is further proof that we can all study with prospects we come to know. May God continue to provide increase in His Kingdom!”
Siwell Roach church of Christ, Mississippi: Derek Broome (associate preacher) reports, “We had a great week. This was our mission’s emphasis Sunday. We heard reports on some of our foreign, stateside, and local evangelistic efforts going on right now. We did one session where we strongly discussed our local efforts and used the evangelism charts and posters that we received from the School of Evangelism. We utilized the evangelism PowerPoint to help remind each other what we are doing and how everything being done is for the purpose of reaching lost souls. We also set up one of the Bible studies we have been praying for.”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (preacher/elder) reports, “Our evangelism program is still moving along. We currently have more and more members studying with individuals. Some have completed book one, and others have moved on to book two. We now have two evangelism groups with two leaders for each group. Lots of cards are being sent out, and we are in the process of following up on those cards that are sent out. Our next step is to designate members to take visitors out to eat, assign members to fill out contact cards, and to give out visitor bags.”
Corinth church of Christ, Portland, Tennessee: James Parker (elder) reports, “I am in a study with a young couple! Had our first study last week. I covered some preliminary things with them. Will start my first lesson Monday night! I will be using Back to the Bible.”
Eisenhower church of Christ, Midland, Texas: Allen Weakland (elder/preacher) reports, “It is an exciting time in West Texas—the brethren at Eisenhower continue to be dedicated to the saving of souls. Several people have been brought to our attention that not only need prayers but also the gospel. Dr. Abrams was diagnosed with cancer. We flooded him with cards and plan to write more this Sunday evening. Rebecca Tolbert lost her mom recently—she has been attending worship services with her dad. We also took the York’s out to lunch this past Sunday and are looking to cultivate those beautiful hearts. We are planning on our New Converts Class with around seven attending that class. We also started a home Bible correspondence study due to the HTH mailer.”
Hillsboro church of Christ, Hillsboro, Tennessee: Shelby Moorman (preacher) reports, “The Zimmerman’s are studying with Jonathan Oliver during our Wednesday night Bible Study. They are completely new to the Bible, so he spent a couple weeks on book 1. I have finished BTTB with Mark Anderson and we are watching the Jule Miller films together now.”
Caddo Mills church of Christ, Texas: Jason Sparks (preacher) reports, “We are starting the new mover’s program in January. We are having visitors every week now. Our attendance has gone from the mid-60s to around 87 the last couple of months. There is an excitement in the air still, and a big part of that is the evangelism focus.”
Lafollette church of Christ, Tennessee: Ben Shafer (preacher) reports, “Many of our members went out this week to deliver new movers baskets. We have already had a few good contacts to follow up with. One lady named Lori was wondering where she should go to church since moving to the area. We are hopeful to have her visit with us this Sunday. We also received a request for a Bible correspondence course from a lady on our H2H mailing list. I plan on going to deliver the first course in person this week to see if they will have a personal Bible study instead.”
Recent Comments